"Re-enactors: Do They Eat 'Period' food at Home?" Topic

Do Roman re-enactors actually eat Roman dishes if wife served for dinner?
Same with other periods… ACW, WW1, WW2?

By the looks of most of them that I have seen, no.

Given the quality of food from back then, I would say no – plus as Perris0707 notes – - -

I've made some ECW recipes at home to test them out but with one exception don't eat them as part of my normal diet. The one exception is "Shropshire Cakes" which are identical to a biscuit (US cookie) made by my Grandmother called a "Shrewsbury Biscuit".

BTW I agree about the look of a lot of reenactors. To quote the BBC we are "too old and too fat".

Now, Hey! Be Nice! I am NOT a reenactor…
I might have liked to be, once, but too old, fat and LAZY!
Just how many would voluntarily subject themselves to some Drill, then trot around in woollen clothing, Metal Armour, carrying / using rather heavy weaponry… on a Hot Day?
Respect. And 'consider', historically???

As to subjecting themselves to 'Period' cooking, thereafter… well, just curious! LOL!

Just wondering if any 'enjoy' period foods when at home?

I'd like to rank this among the most blatantly silly questions every at TMP.

And they of course not only ONLY eat period food and drink period beer, but they don't use toilet paper.

Ha ha… the subject never mentioned. Leaves Have been utilised in DIRE emergency… but not from choice! LOL!

There are people who are very interested in historical cuisine.

No, and usually only period food for just part of a muster or reenactment.

I can't escape a vision of a Napoleonic reenactor inviting the whole neighborhood over--"we're having cavalry horse with gunpowder Saturday!"

Stalkey, as blatantly silly questions go on TMP, I'm not sure this one is a contender.

I imagine people like to re-enact sans dysentery and camp fever.

"too old and fat" doesn't stop many re-enactors.
And if your wife serves dinner, you eat it. With grace.

I've never done reenacting but I worked for several years with a woman who was right into the SCA. She hand sewed 15th century Spanish gowns and cooked medieval and renaissance meals on occasion.

My wife had a go at making Roman Panis Quadratis bread based on analysis from a loaf discovered in Pompeii and writings by Pliny the Elder – so a sour dough made from grapes we collected from a vine down the road from us. It was quite nice but a huge amount of work. Given a bit more experimentation, I think it could have been really good.

I've also looked at that 13th Century Andalusian/Moorish cookbook that you can find online, but haven't got around to making anything yet. The stuffed bread loaves look like a great idea to take to work for lunch!

As a war of 1812 reenactor i frequently try things out of the "Cooking at old Fort Niagara" cookbook and watching Townsends videos on you tube for new recipes.

The reenactors I know sometimes make and eat period food, but I don't recall hearing of their non-reenactor spouses making it for them.

38 years of ACW reenacting and I would have to say 'no'.

I don't eat period food at an event let alone at home. Although my 1812 unit does have a couple of period recipes we use in camp.

THIS DUDE HAS STUFF FROM EVERY PERIOD

Tasting History with Max Miller

YouTube link

RECIPES WITH HISTROY

@ Headless Horseman

Hmmm, I was wondering why there was a pail of dried leaves in my re-enactor pal's bathroom! I thought it was potpourri or something.

To answer the question sure with a huge qualifier, modern foods include plants and animals are different (particularly from ancient times), the way they were produced and processed is different and the way you are going to cook it will at best approximate the way it was cooked. Also there taste, why are you going to cook something you know you will not like (trust me my group has done just that on more than one occasion.) Lastly from what I've seen of some medieval recipes was the excuse to show wealth and/or whatever is in season. So eggs cooked with chives can be more like chive with some egg thrown in.

Have done the hardtack, coffee and salt pork in camps in my early years. The group had a mold for the hardtack pattern and we would stamp them out and cut them. Used to eat the leftover tack I would have from an event at home, till it was gone. Close as I got.

Something I have never wished to sample from ACW…
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YouTube link

I have been 'curious' about Maconochies from WW1… but would give that a miss… cold… even if availble! lol.
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I did buy a can of Irish stew… about as close as you will get, now… but Mutton Based, and it sat there until chucked out! Without doubt, a 'better' meal… just not keen on sheep.

Have read that Hardtack could still be 'edible'… maybe… after a century in VERY Cold climate! Erm…

'Hard Cured' German Sausage 'liberated' from those lucky … or unlucky enough to still have it on their person… would often be a prize in Both WWs.

Boiled peanuts are ok. Had them in South Carolina.

I heard " Desiccated vegetables" could be an adventure.

If you have not, read "Hardtack and Coffee".

"Desiccated vegetables became an important tool in the arsenal of nutrition. Originally designed to combat the problem of scurvy for men serving on the frontier before the Civil War, Congress passed a law providing for the creation of canned, compressed, and mixed vegetables called desiccated vegetables.Jan 3, 2019"

Really, if you can get the coffee, what else do you need?

I remember an older NCO in my squad at Ranger School routinely trading food for coffee in mountain phase, probably the hungriest time of any of our lives. I tried it myself, and never looked back.

Woolton pie for one, SPAM sarnies for another, National Loaf to name a few. Of course there is the old stand-by cheese, bacon and corn all cooked togethr to save time…

As long as it's not ersatz coffee made from acorns or something like that.

I forgot about Camp Coffee. I remember buying my dad a bottle of it once for a giggle,he curled his lips, and put it on a self. It was still there after he passed away, unopened.

U.K Grandfather, (WW1 generation), although mainly Tea drinker… would ONLY drink Camp Coffee. Wouldn't touch 'real' coffee or Nescafe!
When, during WW2, he 'aquired' a large tin of coffee from US military 'source'… it was 'given' to relative as a favour… to disgust of wife and kids!

I have not tried Camp… but hardly ever have coffee or tea.

Woolton pie… never heard of it. SOME of the variations do not sound all that bad. Shudder at Marmite… but Bovril or Oxo gravy? Or can of White Wine sauce… hmm? With mash top… just a Shepherds/ Cottage pie without meat… or chuck in Corned beef! Doubt that I will ever attempt it.. I don't cook… but had less appetising School Dinners!
Been on Horse holidays when Previous 'Mixed Veg' meant Shepherds pie… went down fine!

'National Loaf' sounds foul… but Love Spam! In fact, just might have some! lol!
Edit. Yep! Small tin of Spam and HP, +Salad and Salad Cream… at 3am, and when I have got very little appetite for anything! Will keep me going for another day! Cheers!

To generations that thought bread had to be white National Loaf was considered foul. It was nicknamed "Hitler's secret weapon". Nowadays it would be considered a healthy "artisanal bread". Ooh salad cream, haven't had that in years. I do miss it.

Camp Coffee with condensed milk is a rare treat. It bears little resemblance to any other coffee you are likely to be served.

I hope never to touch an MRE again, but it would be interesting to see an actual meal as it was made at the time, in particular some of the WWI rations- a can of bully beef or Maconochie, for example. I suspect the quality of the meat would have been appalling by modern standards.

4th Curassier- I think that is a Vietnamese thing.